


The Curse of Pharaoh Sahure

by thequidditchpitch_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Drama, Explicit Language, Post War, Post-War, Romance, The Quidditch Pitch: Eternity, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-19
Updated: 2009-06-19
Packaged: 2018-10-27 16:50:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10812981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequidditchpitch_archivist/pseuds/thequidditchpitch_archivist
Summary: The death of William Arthur Weasley. Part of my "When I Became an Angel" series.





	The Curse of Pharaoh Sahure

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes:

I used these websites for additional information:

<http://www.eyelid.co.uk/dynasty1.htm>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahure>

<http://www.catchpenny.org/curses.html>

Part of my “When I Became an Angel” series. I am trying my hand at something new. For this story, I was also inspired by the character of Indiana Jones. I hope you all enjoy it!

*hugs*

missgranger2

 

* * *

 

**“The Curse of Pharaoh Sahure: The Death of William Arthur Weasley”**

 

_“As for anyone who shall lay a finger on this pyramid and this temple which belong to me and my ka, he will have laid his finger on the Mansion of Horus in the firmament, he will have offended the Lady of the Mansion ... his affair will be judged by the Ennead and he will be nowhere and his house will be nowhere; he will be one proscribed, one who eats himself.”_ _Dynasty 5 Pyramid Texts (Utterance 534, §1278-9)_   

He had scoured all the monuments built for Pharaoh Sahure from the 5th Dynasty.  Muggle archeologists would have never found the information, for the ancient Egyptian wizards had cleverly hidden the papyrus inside each of them.  Only a Curse Breaker would know that if you tapped the monument with a wand in a distinctive pattern, a hidden compartment would reveal itself.  

Bill was holding a sheet of ancient papyrus in his hand, looking as pristine as it did when a scribe gazed upon it some 3000 years ago.  This was the last piece of the puzzle that he had been looking for and hoped like hell it would lead him to Pharaoh Sahure’s tomb and more importantly the treasure hidden inside.  Bill smiled to himself.  _The Goblins will surely be pleased if I discover as much gold as I think there is buried with him._

He was presently on a camel heading north through the Eastern Desert.  It was terribly hot and he used the end of his head scarf to wipe the sweat from his forehead.  He stopped the camel and looked at the papyrus again.  A map had been drawn upon it, showing exactly where the tomb of Sahure was located.  A Muggle archeologist would never have guessed in a million years that it was buried under the sand of the dessert.

Bill folded the papyrus and shoved it in his pocket.  He was nearly there now, perhaps less than a mile to go.  He pulled the reins of the camel and hit it on the sides with his boots.  The camel began to move forward and Bill could feel excitement shooting through him.  _This could possibly be one of the greatest finds the wizard world has ever known!_

~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~

Bill stopped the camel and climbed off.  He took the map out again and nodded his head as he scanned the area.  Reaching into his pocket, he took out a small telescope that had been modified magically.  Bill held it up to his eye and spotted the first of four rock formations deliberately made by ancient Egyptian wizards some distance away.  He began to turn his body around and spotted the other ones.  Bill shoved the telescope back into his pocket and took his wand out.  He aimed at the sandy ground and then began to raise his arm slowly.  A large circle of sound began to lift from the ground, some thirty feet across.  It reached upwards toward the sky and then began to fall as if were a fountain of water.

When the sand had settled, it had created what looked like a large circular sand dune.  Bill climbed up top one of the mountains of sand and knelt, peering down into the hole he had just created.  He lit the tip of his wand and cast it toward the hole.  _There’s definitely a flat surface down there… looks like rock._   Bill stood back up and jumped from the sand mound.  He began to run toward the camel and upon reaching it, pulled out some rope, a heavy mallet and a large anchor. 

Bill quickly took the supplies to a spot not from the sand mountain and dropped them to the ground. He began to pound the magically enhanced anchor into the ground.  The mallet glowed green, telling him that the anchor was secured.  He fitted the rope through the anchor and tied it into several knots.  Grabbing the end of the rope, he climbed back atop the hill of sand and secured the end to his waist.  

Bill took a deep breath and turned himself so that his back was to the hole.  He climbed in and planted his feet on the side of the opening, lowering himself down as slowly as possible.  When he felt his feet hit the flat surface, he removed the rope from his waist and lit the tip of his wand once more.  Bill knelt and reached his hand out, moving it along the smooth rock.  _Probably standing on the ceiling to the tomb._

Bill removed his weather beaten small notebook from his pocket.  He snapped off the rubber band that held it together and thumbed through the pages.  _Ah!  Says here I it’d be good idea to perform a forgiveness ritual before I cut into the rock._ Bill closed the book and sat down cross legged, setting the book down beside him.  He pulled a small, ancient dagger from his robes and set it on the ground in front of him.  He began to chant in the ancient Egyptian language of Coptic, asking for forgiveness for what he was about to do.  Eyes still closed, Bill picked up the dagger and made a small incision on the palm of his hand.  He laid his bloody palm flat upon the rock and bowed his head, chanting once more.

After a few minutes, Bill lifted his hand and ceased chanting.  Satisfied, he stuffed the dagger along with the notebook back into his robes.  Using his wand, he began to slice a large enough opening into the rock that he could fit his body through.  The square he cut glowed red hot before falling down to the inside of the chamber with a thud.  Bill could instantly smell a whoosh of stale and undisturbed air steadily blowing upwards.

His eyes glowing with excitement, Bill sat down with his legs inside the opening.  He hoisted himself down and landed on top of the portion of the rock he had just cut.  He started coughing for a minute as the air was thick and heavy with age.  Holding his lit wand tip out before him, he could see that he was inside one of the tunnels leading to the tomb.  _Shite!  Which way do I bloody go- left or right?_ Both ways seemed to go on forever.  

Throwing caution to the wind, Bill decided to just go right, thinking at worse it would lead him to a dead end.  He hadn’t got far when he noticed that there was a large, colorful mural on the wall to his left.  Bill’s eyes widened as he gazed upon it, seeing a man that looked like himself atop a camel in the desert.  “What the…”  Bill began to read the hieroglyphs aloud.  “Beware of the red man.”  He started to laugh and shook his head.  “C’mon now, you’ll have to do better than that in order to scare me off!”  Instantly, the mural began to change and the man on top of the camel now looked like a golden statue.  “Hmm… that’s interesting.  Of course I don’t know what the hell it means.” Quite used to the odd shenanigans that the ancient wizards had left behind to try and scare away potential grave robbers, Bill laughed.  

Losing interest quickly with the mural, Bill walked on, stopping when he came to where the dirt floor ended and what looked to be a cobblestone road began.  “Can you ancient wizards ever think of anything more original?”  He had seen the same set-up before numerous times in his almost twenty year career.  Using his wand, he levitated himself a foot off the ground and began to move his body forward.  What looked like cobblestones, were actually individual booby traps.  If a person stepped on one, it would trigger poisonous darts to shoot out from the walls. 

Bill began counting the stones under his feet.  When he got to the seventh stone, he stopped himself.  Taking a deep breath, Bill stretched his hand forward and waved it, then quickly moved it back.  Razor sharp blades came jutting out of the walls on both sides and slammed together with a snap.  _Ingenious little buggers creating a motion sensing device like that!_ Bill swooped around the trap and stopped when he got to every seventh one, triggering the device and moving on.  

Finally coming back to the dirt floor, he levitated himself down and walked slowly forward.   He had gone pretty far until his passage was blocked by a large lake.  It was purposely placed there, as he could see that the tunnel continued on the other side.  Bill had never encountered anything like it and shook his head in wonder.  “Going to make me work for it this time, eh?” 

Bill looked carefully to the right and then left.  _That’s amazing!  It looks like it goes on for miles in either direction.  Wait a minute…_ Bill brought his wand down closer to the water and saw that it was red- blood red.  He shuddered slightly and then shook himself.  _Don’t let them fuck with your head!_ He then looked upwards and saw the ceiling on top of the lake looked to be far taller than the tunnel he was in.  Frowning, he sat down on the ground and raised his knees up, thinking.  _There has to be some sort of ancient mechanism hidden around here… perhaps it makes a bridge appear?_

Bill rose up off the floor and ran his hand all along the wall on either side of the opening.  Nothing.  He stood with chin in hand and stared across the lake.  Bill suddenly smiled and snapped his fingers.  “Got it!”   Bill began tapping his wand along one of the rock walls.  Frowning, he turned around and did the same to the other wall.  Within minutes, he had found what he was hunting for- a hollow space hidden in the wall.  “Yes!”  Bill held out his wand and drew a fiery “X” to mark it.  He took a step back and aimed his wand at the mark.

The rock crumbled and fell to the ground.  Bill quickly held the lighted tip of his wand up at the opening he had found and saw that there was what appeared to be a small, metal crank.  With his other hand, he began to turn the crank and heard a loud squeaking sound originating from somewhere above him.  He peered out to the lake and saw that a wooden, narrow bridge was slowly descending downward from the high ceiling.  A few cranks later, the bridge was in place and Bill quickly ran across it and to the other side. 

His adrenaline was at an all time high as he felt that he surely must be getting closer to Sahure’s tomb now.  The tunnel finally came to an end, opening up into a large round room decorated with the likeness of the ancient Pharaoh eating, praying and passing on into the afterlife.  _I’m close now!_ Bill spotted the heavy door on the other side that he knew was the entrance to the tomb.  Breathing heavily, he walked to the door, a smile on his face. 

Bill used his hand to wipe the dust clean from the door.  He ran his hands over the hieroglyphs as he read.  “Here lies the son of the gods.  He who is close to Re.”  Bill touched the next hieroglyph reverently, “Sa…” and then the other, “…hure.  Sahure!  This is it!”  He stared in awe for a moment before interpreting the next line of hieroglyphs.  “Cursed are those who disturb this tomb.  Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”  Bill started to chuckle.  “Reckon’ I’m a worm then.”

“Now time to open you up gorgeous and see what you’re hiding.”  Bill stepped back a few steps and aimed his wand at the heavy slab.  Working his wrist back and forth, the slab began to move backwards until it fell with a thunderous thud to the ground.  There was a strange high-pitched noise and Bill raised his wand in alarm.  As the noise subsided, Bill lowered his wand and stared into the darkness wearily.

He lit the tip of his wand and stepped into the tomb.  Shining it around, he could see hundreds of ancient objects, most looking like they were made of solid gold.  “YES!”  Bill jumped up and down and gave a few whoops.  “Hell, yes!”  Bill was just about to pick up a golden chalice, when he stopped himself.  _Stupid arse!  Always check things out first!_

Bill pulled a galleon out of his pocket and pointed his wand at it.  The galleon instantly transformed itself into a small, white mouse.  Lifting it by the tail, Bill set it down inside the golden chalice and waited.  The mouse lifted its paws up the rim of the cup and sniffed the air before jumping out and scurrying out of the tomb.  Bill smiled.  “Doesn’t look like touching the treasure is dangerous then or the mouse would have up and died for sure.”  He picked up the chalice.  It was heavy and had intricate carvings all along the surface. 

“Wow.  It’s brilliant!”  Bill began to set the cup back down so he could see what other treasures he had unearthed.  To his horror, his fingers were now stuck to the cup as if by superglue.  He began to try and frantically shake it off and that’s when he felt his hand starting to grow too heavy to hold up.  Bill knelt to the ground and shakily pointed his lighted wand closer to the chalice.  His hand had turned to gold and he could see that the rest of his arm was beginning to change as well. 

Bill began running through every spell he could think of to try and stop it.  Half his body was solid gold now and the heavy weight caused him to fall to the side.  There was nothing but darkness all around him as his heart slowly began to turn to gold.  He focused on his heartbeat and then was pitched into darkness, his body taking on the appearance of one of the golden statues inside the tomb. 

The heavy slab lifted itself up and moved back in place, sealing the tomb shut.  Lying in front of the sealed door was the transfigured mouse.  His body had also been turned to solid gold and two rubies had replaced his once pink eyes.  A great rumbling could be heard overhead as the hole Bill had created with his wand began to suck the camel, the anchor, the mallet and the rope into it.  The sand dunes slid into the hole, covering up any evidence that the desert ground had ever been disturbed.                                                       

 

       

           

 


End file.
